DWTS is always slightly B-list stars anyway, not that we dont' like some B-list stars (although Florence Henderson is not a big draw, I can see that Pam Anderson might be, and she sounded charming on the show, although I've never seen it yet.) Ms. Palin's appearance doesn't surprise me, as I'll say, in a less elegant way, that Sarah Palin is extremely pushy, and that's how one deals with her or not. Sometimes it doesn't work for her, as she was trashed at the end of the McCain campaign, and her miscalculation of Tea Party candidates for the Senate races make her an easy target for having lost the Senate. Yes, sure, her stardom is 'being Sarah Palin's daughter'. I suppose they are getting us used to being with the Future First Family, should Big Ms. Palin accept the assignment, although in the article I linked about Sarah's own Reality TV show, she says she prefer the great outdoors to some dusty political office, or some similar drek. Yeah, uh-huh. I guess DWTS was just too B-list for the Mama Grizzly, although that would have been interestingly flagrant. But she's just....too bizzy....

DWTS is always slightly B-list stars anyway, not that we dont' like some B-list stars (although Florence Henderson is not a big draw, I can see that Pam Anderson might be, and she sounded charming on the show, although I've never seen it yet.) Ms. Palin's appearance doesn't surprise me, as I'll say, in a less elegant way, that Sarah Palin is extremely pushy, and that's how one deals with her or not. Sometimes it doesn't work for her, as she was trashed at the end of the McCain campaign, and her miscalculation of Tea Party candidates for the Senate races make her an easy target for having lost the Senate. Yes, sure, her stardom is 'being Sarah Palin's daughter'. I suppose they are getting us used to being with the Future First Family, should Big Ms. Palin accept the assignment, although in the article I linked about Sarah's own Reality TV show, she says she prefer the great outdoors to some dusty political office, or some similar drek. Yeah, uh-huh. I guess DWTS was just too B-list for the Mama Grizzly, although that would have been interestingly flagrant. But she's just....too bizzy....

DWTS has always been very B-list, and often C or D-list. Like for all reality shows, casting is something of a crapshoot of who the producers want and who is begging to get onto the show (for various reasons). I think the tabloidy aspect of it is part of its appeal for a lot of people. I'm sure I was not the only one with a lurid fascination of how Heather Mills McCartney ("Charity Campaigner" which for me will always be up there with "Teen Abstinence Advocate") was going to dance on one leg.

That's true as far as it goes and it doesn't hurt to remember that this isn't an artistic competition, it's a reality show trying to snag the biggest share possible of the tv viewing audience.

But a wrinkle here is that I've heard reports that tea party websites are instructing followers to vote en masse for Bristol.It's a way of "enlarging" her mother's "importance". And so a lot of the voting is coming in from people who don't even watch the show. They are distorting the voting results. But I doubt that the producers would try to adjust for this. How could you split out the results that are nothing more than a political muscle flex? Pretty impossible to quantify.

I used to work on a reality tv show, so believe me, I am well, well aware that this show isn't an artistic competition.

Even if DWTS were a contest (which it isn't for FCC purposes), there really is nothing wrong with telling people to vote for Bristol. Every celebrity interested in staying on the show since Season 1 has done that, and most are doing it via Facebook and Twitter as well. As it happens, Sarah Palin's base is bigger than most, so it seems like it's very, very effective for Bristol. But it's really part of the show for all of the celebs.

Robo-calling is actually a much bigger issue, and I actually haven't heard much on that front from Mrs. Palin's supporters (which is not to say that they're not doing it). That's actually come up as an issue on DWTS before, but I haven't heard much about that this season.

However, this does bring up a point that I should have mentioned earlier, since DWTS doesn't qualify as a contest, it really doesn't matter how the judges vote or how viewers vote. The producers can pretty much do anything they please since they are not required to follow any rules. Even if Bristol "wins" by a huge margin of votes, if the producers choose to do so, they could disqualify a large proportion of Bristol's votes and declare someone else (Jennifer, Kyle) the winner. In fact, they could declare Winnie-The-Pooh the winner because, again, it's not a contest.

Reading Marga's comments made me wonder - do the pros give their partners actual dance training? Or is there only time to teach the steps to the current dance(s) while throwing in a comment or two about posture, foot pointing, etc? Is it legal within the parameters of the show to bring in another instructor to give a straight dance class throughout the season? Maybe there's not enough time to do that and also learn the dance steps. Btw, I also agree with all of Marga's comments.

From what I can tell from both the B-reel and how their students perform season after season, how much actual dance training the pros give varies widely from pro to pro. Some pros seem to try to convey actual concepts of technique as they work with their celebrities, and their celebs tend perform pretty well season after seaon (Derek, Mark, Cheryl, Louis, etc.) Others of the pros either are not very effective teachers and their celeb results are much more inconsistent (Edyta, Anna, Tony, etc.) I find the amount of energy Maks puts into his celebrities varies a lot from season to season, perhaps depending on the celebrity's aptitude and attitude.

You do have to remember that the quality of the pros on the show in real dance world terms varies from World Class coach and competitor who has coached many of the other pros (Louis van Amstel) to neighborhood dance instructor (not going to name names) and everything in-between. The quality of instruction reflects that. And that is not to say that there aren't some excellent neighborhood dance instructors, as well as some excellent dancers who are really mediocre teachers which is also definitely reflected on the show.

If you mean by "straight dance class" you mean sending a celebrity to ballet or jazz class, I don't think there's anything against the "rules" about that, and I think there has been B-reel of celebrities in other dance classes in the past. There have been issues with pros bringing in other choreographers, and I believe that they are not allowed to do that anymore, probably because that begins to involve intellectual property issues. (Cheryl Burke brought in another choreographer for "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy," and said choreographer was not pleased when only Cheryl's name was listed on the choreography for Emmy consideration, and so the producers have cracked down on that since then).

As an aside, from a purely reality producer perspective, I don't think that the producers could have ever imagined that Bristol's casting could have ever been as wildly successful as this. I don't remember this much energy and interest in the show in several seasons. It has become an amazing cultural flashpoint.

When Tony was dancing professionally with Elena in American Rythhm I loved his choreography. The Sexyback showdance they competed with at the Ohio Ball several years ago is one of my all time favorite dance performaces. I've watched it a ridiculous number of times on YouTube. I've never seen Tony bring that level of choreography to DWTS. Perhaps only a few times with Stacy Keebler or Melissa Rycroft did he show any spark of his professional level choreographic skill.
Derek is able to teach and choreograph a novice beautifully. He's also a stunning dancer. His behavior on show night irritates me sometimes. He's like a small, hyperactive yipping little puppy you want to smack on the bottom, but when he dances!

I've decided not to get upset anymore at Bristol being in the finale. What will be, will be.

If Jennifer can keep up the goodish quality of her dancing through the rest of this competition, I would think she has this in the bag: Nostalgic Dirty Dancing fanbase + Derek Hough + goodish dancing = mirror ball trophy

If Jennifer can keep up the goodish quality of her dancing through the rest of this competition, I would think she has this in the bag: Nostalgic Dirty Dancing fanbase + Derek Hough + goodish dancing = mirror ball trophy

Every time I see Bristol Palin dance, I cringe through most of her movements. She doesn't realize that movement must extend through the feet and hands, much less that her upper body should be supple and pliant.

She knows nothing about articulation of body parts. Her head sits on her shoulders with no extension of neck at all. There is no high-held body carriage, no relaxed, stretched arching. When her arms are raised above her head, her shoulders go with them. Her upper body-torso-legs is one solid unbending piece.

Actually, this is an interesting point. There's no question that Bristol lacks stretch, articulation, and most of all attack. But even though her upper-body and torso aren't aesthetically pleasing, the fundamental positioning is actually quite sound for a beginner-intermediate dancer. Her torso moves as one and she is mostly able to maintain it squarely to Mark which allows them maximal maneuverability and good leg swing. Their movement across the floor as a couple and frame is relatively stable, which is a good sign at this point. If she were actually to continue dancing, her coach would probably send her to ballet and jazz class to develop those aspects of her dancing, but the basics of good technique are there.

Jennifer is stretched, but her positioning is not sound and I'm actually surprised that Derek lets her get away with it given her medical history. She's arches over her lower back which looks pretty, but is not stable (for obvious reasons) and is fundamentally bad technique because it doesn't let the couple move together from their cores, as well as being potentially dangerous for her back. If you actually watch Derek and Jennifer dance together, Jennifer is moving all over the place. In some ways, her flexibiltiy is a liability because she doesn't have the corresponding strength and positioning to control it. They're not able to maintain stable movement together, and actually, I highly doubt that Jennifer could maintain that position for a full 5 dances even if she were completely healthy.

Of course, what you really want is a combination of both: layering Jennifer's stretch and flexibility over the top of Bristol's stable positioning, but really Bristol's technique is much more sound in this area. If Jennifer were to keep dancing, Derek would have to fundamentally re-work what she is doing.

Thank you, sidwich, for the scholarly explanation. I don't know how to judge ballroom dancing as I was a ballet dancer as is my daughter, so I look at ballroom with a ballet eye. My acquaintance with ballroom is purely experiential, as I grew up dancing the waltz, polka, tango, rumba and fox trot, being of a culture that dances. We didn't call it 'ballroom'; it was simply dancing.

I'd love a list of things to look for before next season's DWTS. It would make the viewing experience more enjoyable, as having knowledge of a subject always does.